


Meeting in the Forest

by pikkugen



Category: Ronja Rövardotter | Ronia the Robber's Daughter - Astrid Lindgren
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-25
Updated: 2011-12-25
Packaged: 2017-10-28 03:31:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikkugen/pseuds/pikkugen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How they met each other. Pre-canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting in the Forest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Syksy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syksy/gifts).



> Beta by gentlezombie

She had been a serving girl.

Her lady was an elderly duchess with several ladies-in-waiting, guards, errand boys and servants, and one wisp of a girl with a dark hair, a stained apron and barely sixteen years on her skinny shoulders. The lady had been invited by the king to some festival or another, and since she lived in a distant castle and was widowed, she had to take a whole army of her servants with her.

During the journey up the mountains and into the deep dark forest the serving girl had looked for firewood and minded the fire for the cook and peeled vegetables and plucked hens and done the washing after dinner, and her apron had stains and the cook had berated her and told her to go wash it in a nearby stream. The camp had been packed and ready to leave when she was still searching for a way to descend the steep rocky slope to the water, but she believed she could follow the trail well enough. And it wouldn't be dark for hours yet, even in the middle of the high spruces and even higher mountains. She had been born in a small village near a forest in the lowlands, so she wasn't afraid of the trees.

But when she had washed her apron – the stains hadn't left, even after she had rubbed them with sand and sorrel leaves – the steep and narrow path was empty and the tracks of many horses and two carriages and several people walking had started to fade in the deep moss. She hitched up her skirts and started walking briskly up the path, all the while listening to the noises in the forest and the noises from up the path.

The one thing she knew about forests was you shouldn't be afraid of them, because if you were, all the things living in them would smell it and come crawling: wolves, bears, and all the different fairies you could find in a forest. But she couldn't help being a little worried. It was far too silent.

Then she heard something, but it seemed to be far away: screams, the clang of steel, the neighing of horses, and she dropped the wet apron and started to run up the path. She saw the cliff sides rising higher and higher by the path and realized this would be an ideal place for robbers to attack.

She found empty carriages and some discarded broken things by the path after the narrow, never-ending pass. Some tracks went down the path again but more turned left towards a higher hilltop a little distance away. And from the forest beside the sidetrack there came a dark-haired young man with a bow and a sword and dressed in dirty, ragged clothes.

“What are you doing here all alone, little girl?” he asked, but his voice was gentle.

“Not so little, robber boy”, she said, bristling. “I'm sixteen already. What have you done to the Duchess and her servants?”

“Oh, you were one of them”, said the youth. “Well, we let them walk on after we helped them part with their heavier things, you see. It's not easy to walk these forest paths carrying so much stuff, don't you agree?” And he smiled, and she noticed he had quite a nice smile. “You can walk that way and you'll probably catch them sooner or later”, he added helpfully pointing down the path. “They didn't look like they could walk that fast. Or you could come up to Mick's castle with me, if you'd like.” And he suddenly looked down at his feet and blushed a bit under all the dirt on his face. “What's your name? I'm Matt, by the way. My father is Mick, the chief of Mick's clan. ”

“I'm Lovis”, said the girl and took a step towards him almost without meaning to. “Does that mean you'll be the next chief of the robbers after your father?”

“Yes, it does”, he answered, smiling even wider. “And you should decide quickly, because in an hour it'll be darker than the inside of a boot here, and I'm not going to stay out all night.” He extended a hand to her, and she hesitated only a little before taking it. They started climbing up the path leading to the hill, and after a bend and a twist she gasped to see a huge old castle on the bare mountain top.

“That's Mick's Castle”, said the youth proudly. “In time it will be Matt's Castle. What do you say?”

Lovis snorted. “I'm sure it's filthy as a pigsty after all of you robbers”, she answered, but admitted to herself that it seemed quite a fine place to live. And she was clever enough to know that if she now followed the young robber into the castle, she would stay there with him. Well, there wasn't anything better to expect from being a serving girl, and probably a lot worse, so she straightened her shoulders, took a firmer grip of Matt's hand and walked up to the castle with him, already planning what she should do next.


End file.
